April 5, 2024
Saturday Night Live stars Pete Davidson and Colin Jost‘s Staten Island ferry is in for some big changes: One of the comedians’ partners on the project, architect Ron Castellano, has revealed in an interview that the ferry—which was purchased for $280,000 in 2022 by the two Weekend Update anchors—will be converted into a floating hotel with 24 rooms, two restaurants, and six bars, reports Fox Business.
“It’s going to have a lot of things,” Castellano says of the $34 million venue project.
“I think right now, we have six bars and two venues operated separately or combined,” he continues. “We have outdoor event space, we have restaurants—two restaurants. It’s a big boat, almost 300 feet long, 65,000 square feet. That’s one and a half times the size of Nine Orchard Hotel.”
“They have input. They see everything. We have meetings as needed, sometimes twice a week, sometimes every three months,” he told the outlet of the “SNL” stars.
“Right now, honestly, I’m trying to get the design work done as fast as possible.”
The ferry does not currently have plans to include a swimming pool, but that could change, according to Castellano.
“A pool is something that keeps coming up. We’re going back and forth,” he said. “There’s a little Jacuzzi kind of thing, but not a full-on pool. We’d have to do a floating pool.”
Castellano notes, “We have sort of the initial construction phase underway, like, we’re just bidding it out as it gets done. That’s going to take a year, and as that happens, we’re tightening the drawings,; and as that’s happening, we’re going to find the location.”
“Yeah, if it’s not sunk!” Davidson teased during an interview with Entertainment Tonight.”
“Hopefully it turns into a Transformer and gets the f— out of there, so I can stop paying for it!”
During the red-carpet event, Davidson confessed he and his co-star were under the influence when they purchased the ferry.
“Me and Colin were very stoned a year ago and bought a ferry. And we’re figuring it out,” he said.
In January 2022, Jost, Davidson and Italia put down a winning bid for the John F. Kennedy, a 277-foot vessel that shuttled commuters between the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Staten Island from 1965 until it was taken out of service in August 2021.
Shortly after the impulsive purchase, Davidson and Jost joked about buying the boat during an SNL segment.
“Hey! We bought a ferry, the windowless van of the sea,” Davidson announced.
Jost quipped, “Yes, it’s very exciting. We thought the whole thing through.”
In April 2022, Jost, 40, took the decommissioned Staten Island ferry for a joyride.
The comedian was photographed setting sail from the St. George Ferry Terminal for the first time since the ferry was initially purchased.
“I took this exact boat every morning at 7 a.m. to go into high school in the city,” Jost told the New York Post at the time. “It’s cool. It’s weird to be back.”
Jost was joined by his 96-year-old grandfather as the ferry was towed to a new temporary location.
“I wanted my grandpa to see it. He’s 96 and he’s been on Staten Island for his whole life,” Jost explained.
Research contact: @FoxBusiness